Artemis trudged wearily up the steps to her home in Los Palto. She was practically on auto-pilot. She registered nothing. Felt nothing.

Wally was gone.

Nightwing had tried to console her, Miss Martian had tried to have her come home with her, Barry had even offered to escort her back, but she couldn't be with anyone. She felt empty, so much emptier than she had ever been. More than when her father had come home to try and recruit her, more than the aftermath of the Louisiana mission, even more than when she had been alone in the submarine, only the idea of returning to Wally keeping her going.

Wally.

She pulled out the key, not really seeing the lock as she twisted and opened the door. Nelson looked up from the couch at her, where he had been faithfully waiting. His stubby tail wagging excitedly as he took in his mistress's return. He clumsily leapt from the couch and approached her, and she knelt, right there in the open doorway, barely registering as she pet his ears. His tongue lolled appreciatively, but eventually he turned away from her, looking over her shoulder.

Looking for Wally.

"Sorry, Nelson." She whispered. She crushed the rising sadness as Nelson whined at the door. It was now going to be just them. Because he was never coming back. "Sorry."

She dropped the bag containing her costume to the ground, not even noticing as the wind shut the door behind her. What- what was she supposed to do? Wally had said he had planned out how they could spend their evening, something unusually thoughtful of him. She reached the threshold to their room, looking in on the bleak and empty darkness. The bed wasn't made, of course. Wally was such a slob without her around.

Wally.

She entered woodenly, not looking at his side of the bed, sitting slowly down on her side, absently feeling the textures beneath her fingers. Her tired eyes turned, finding the picture on her beside of the two of them. It was of them at Dick's last birthday party, the two of them smiling at each other instead of the camera. Her heart did an extra thump as she noticed an envelope on the side table with his scratchy handwriting.

'To Artemis'

Shakily, breathing quickly, she snatched at it, her eyes tearing up as she opened it to find tickets to one of their favorite bands, a note sloppily scrawled on the side.

'I've missed you babe- having you home is a dream. We didn't celebrate your birthday, so I figured we'd celebrate together! Turn around for an even better surprise. ;)'

She could barely read the last sentence through the tears that were finally leaking, but once she did, she couldn't help but let out a gasping sob. She turned, facing the doorway with a ridiculous, crazy flutter of hope, but met only an empty hallway. Of course Wally wasn't there, smiling and cocky and Wally.

She would never see him again.

The woman suddenly found she couldn't breathe as her tears choked up, her composure finally lost. "Wally…" she clenched the letter in her hands, rising from the bed and staring down the doorway. "Come out… you stupid idiot! Where are you?!" Her voice grew to a screech that covered Nelson's concerned whine. "You can't do this!" She gasped, sobbing and feeling so dead inside that she was absently amazed how much pain she felt. "I came back… I came back Wally…" She came back; she stayed alive and returned from that hell of a mission.

And he died. On a mission he didn't even want to be a part of. On a mission he was only there to do because she wouldn't let go of the life.

She fell onto the bed, crying, wailing. "You can't leave me… not like this… oh god, oh god!" He was gone, he was gone. He left her- no, she wanted to get back in the game, and he died because of it! "Wally…" She whimpered his name brokenly, grasping his pillow and inhaling the faint scent left there. "Wally, Wally, Wally…"

She felt the soft flutter of air, and didn't think about how there were no windows open, nothing to stir the curtains, or to brush at her hair ever so faintly. Come home, Wally. She sobbed into her pillow, lost to anything going on around her. I'm sorry Wally, I'm so sorry. Just come home, please come home…

"I'm here babe, I'm here." Wally murmured desolately. When he had run from Tula and those guys- the Guardians, he didn't think. He didn't want to believe, didn't want to accept what they were saying.

He had waited, for four hours at his and Artemis' doorstep. Wally had begun to think she wasn't returning that night, but then he saw her coming. He had raced down, calling her name, and she didn't even glance his way. He didn't care, there had to be a way around it! "Artemis!" He had yelled. "I didn't leave you! Hello?! Earth to stick in the mud! I'm alive! Look up, miss congeniality! I'm here! I'm going to leave my dirty socks on the ground for Nelson to chew on, I swear I will! Just look at me!" He yelled and ran around her and said everything he had ever known to get her riled up, anything to show she somehow heard him.

But then she looked up (not at him, at the stairs to their door), and he saw her face.

He had only seen that face two other times. When Jade had returned to the life, and when she found out Tula's death. And that's when it hit him, really hit him.

She saw her other half disintegrate into nothing. She didn't think he was alive. She saw Wally die.

"Artemis…" He had frozen at her expression, only coming out of it when she trudged through him up the steps. He gasped at the sensation, because seeing yourself so solid and the world looking right and then realizing you weren't there wasn't easy to face.

He followed her up, slowly. For whatever, childish reason, he had thought that if he returned to her, tried again, she'd see him; she'd know he was there. He stood in the doorway, seeing she had stopped to pet Nelson. The dumb dog looked ridiculously happy, and that's when it hit that she hadn't been to this home in months.

And now she had to return without him.

Her bag dropped harshly to the ground, making him jump. "Babe…?" Of course he received no answer, and she trudged on in, forgetting the door was open. Without thinking he moved to do it himself, absently surprised he could. Quietly, it clicked shut, and he realized Nelson was still looking at the door, eerily like he was looking at him. "Can… can you see me boy…?" The dog had whined quietly, his tail wagging a little, but looking confused more than anything. Why could he see his master but not smell him? Why did his mistress cry and his master not comfort her like he knew his humans would? Wally had tentatively reached down, feeling a pang when his hand went through his own dog. Nelson had cocked his head at the sight, neither sure what to make of that.

He heard a choked noise along with his name whimpered out and instantly had run to where he heard it, feeling his own heart hammer in realization.

The bedroom.

Artemis was there, next to the bed with fists clenched, glaring daggers accusingly at the doorway, at him. Her voice was so strangled with tears, so furiously desperate. "Come out."

"Artemis! Just try and see me! Look, Artemis! I didn't leave you! I-" He looked down, seeing the note in her clenched hand, feeling his gut sink to a new low. "Oh no…"

"You stupid idiot! Where are you?!" Her eyes were red and shimmering in the faint moonlight. That note, it was part of his welcome home present, that was the beginning of his proposal to her. 'Turn around for an even better surprise', isn't that what he wrote? Oh god, why? Her accusing eyes drilled into his. "You can't do this!"

"I'm sorry babe, I'm so sorry…" He walked into the room, out of the field of her broken glare, feeling the pain regardless. He had done this, he had done this to her.

Artemis was gasping for air, sobbing her heart out and nobody was there to comfort her, no one but his ghost. She lowered her eyes, chest heaving. "I came back… I came back Wally…"

He felt his heart breaking all over, his own voice strangled with pain. "I know babe, I'm so glad you're safe. I'm here too, I didn't leave you, I'd never leave you…"

She didn't hear him, wearily falling on the bed, the bed she hadn't been in for months that he had planned that same evening to sleep in with her, to hold her and run his fingers through her hair and feel her soft tan skin. But now she lay in a heap on it, alone, instinctively reaching for his pillow and clutching it like a lifeline, wailing in a way he had never heard that just made his heart shatter more. "You can't leave me… not like this…"

"Artemis, please, I'll never leave you, I'll always come back." She couldn't hear him; he knew that, his heart kept breaking because he knew that. But he had to say it, he had to try. "Please, Artemis, I'm here!" It didn't matter, she was inconsolable. He spent the rest of the night with her, right until the grey of dawn started peaking through the curtains. The whole night she called out to him. Sometimes angrily accusing him, but more often brokenly saying sorry. Each and every time he would reply, consoling her deaf ears, crying with her, trying to soothe her sweaty, heated brow.

Finally she succumbed to exhaustion, and Wally watched her tear stained face soften as she temporarily forgot this nightmare. The speedster (was he even considered a speedster now?) looked down to the picture that had been by the envelope, tracing the frame holding such happy memories. How had it come to this? Was he doomed forever to this fate? Stuck on one side, able to see and hear and sense yet do nothing? "I'm sorry, babe." He looked down at his hands, still covered in his signature red gloves that were now foreign from the years of not wearing the uniform. Some hero he was. Useless, I'm useless! "I'm sorry…"

He heard a rustle by the window, and looked up to see the skinny kid was back, knocking tentatively. Wally briefly wondered why he should bother, but after one more look at Artemis, got up and softly opened the pane.

The ice blue eyes, even more piercing than Dick's, looked over the huddled form on the bed. "Is that… her?"

"Yeah…"

Jack turned back to Wally, frowning in sympathy. "I know it doesn't mean much, and I don't blame you for being mad at us, but I am sorry this had to happen."

Wally looked back as well, watching his love, keeping his voice hushed even though she'd never hear them. "That- the man on the moon. Was he… responsible for that chrysalis energy zapping me?"

"I don't think so." Jack shook his head tersely, the idea clearly absurd to him. "He never purposefully kills someone, but if they do- well, die, he can take advantage of the death and make it something greater."

So, if these Guardians hadn't chosen me, then I would have died anyway. Wally felt a horrible throb run through him. And if they hadn't, then Artemis would truly be alone, completely. Hearing another rustle, he turned to see Jack was holding Kent's watch- Wally's watch, out to him.

"Look," he started, eyes drilling into his. "It's going to take some getting used to, but you need to trust us. I spent three centuries alone, with no idea if anyone but Manny caring that I was alive. Believe me, you don't want to do that. Right now, it's not just us that need you; it's the people you've saved time and time again that need you."

Wally watched him solemnly, his now intense green eyes turning back to his past life. "This evil you're harping about… its endangering her as well?"

"I don't watch you heroes in action much, but you- they are on the front lines of its attack."

Wally watched his love again. He couldn't speak to her, couldn't console her, couldn't do anything. But in this… this he might be able to do something. And if Jack was right, then the people he swore to protect were still in danger, and he was still able to help. He was willing to sacrifice his life once, why not again? He turned back to the frost spirit, taking the watch from his hand. He knew his decision. "I'll meet you outside in just a second, okay?"

"Sure," the younger guy looked surprised at the sudden acceptance but didn't push it, "sure, take however long you need." And just like that he was flying off the window sill, light as a snowflake in the air.

Wally turned back to Artemis, feeling the weight of what she was about to go through- living a life without him. He approached, one last time attempting to soothe her golden mane. "Babe, if there's any chance, any that you can hear me, listen up." He leaned in, his mouth practically pressed to her ear, "I love you. I always have, I always will." He leaned away, scanning her face, knowing he wouldn't see any reaction. "I won't give up getting back to you, I swear I'll try everything in my power. But for now I'm going to go. I don't know where, or what I'm doing, but I'm no good to you now." He turned back to the picture, his throat aching at the happiness portrayed there. "I might never be able to come back to you. But I promise, Artemis, that I will be here for you, protecting you, helping you as much as I can." If I'm anyone's Guardian, I'm yours. He stepped away, hoisting himself up into the window, turning back one last time to see her face. "I love you." He whispered again, then was gone.

Curses! This is what I get for not watching Doctor Who yet! -.- Okay, for those of you who know the REAL Time Lord in the universe, I'm sorry, this isn't going to be like that Time Lord, and I certainly don't plan on having police boxes flying around.

Well, we now have Wally on track, sorry if anyone felt Artemis wouldn't grieve like this, but it played much more smoothly with her vulnerable than being that kick ass 'why the HELL would I cry? I'm not a weakling!'.

On another note- OH MY GOSH FINALLY FIGURED OUT THE LINE BREAK THING! SOMEBODY GIVE ME A MEDAL!

Review? They're encouraging. They bring chapters faster. Hint.